Kill - 'I have heard it said that "Karamoja" Bell, the famous elephant hunter of my time in Kenya, went into the Congo during one trip with only 350 rounds of ammunition. He returned with 349 pairs of elephant tusks. Only once did he have to shoot twice at an elephant, and then got it with the second bullet. But he was a noted marksman!

Bell - Foreword - He became so expert with his rifles that he dropped birds in flight, shattered spears in natives hands and in other ways proved his prowess as Africa's No. 1 elephant hunter. .......... Our family was of Lowland Scots and Manx ancestry. My mother died when I was 2 years old .... Our family was a large one - ten - ........ my father died when I was 6 years old. ...... To Mombasa in 1897 on the survey for the Railway - his boss was 'Brittlebank'. Then he went to the Klondike, Yukon to strike it rich!. Then fought in the Boer War and back to EA.. In WW1 he flew in the Balkans. and after WW1 he settled down with his wife in the Highlands of Scotland on an estate called Corriemoillie. He enjoyed ocean sailing and eventually died on his estate in 1951.

Adventurers - No account of the personalities of this brief golden age of the Lado Enclave would be complete without mentioning and describing, however sketchily, W.D.M. Bell, one of the finest elephant hunters Africa has ever known. He won the respect of all by his deeds, and the affection of most by his cheery, generous cameraderie. Bell possessed many, if not all, the qualities that made Selous the idol of the African hunting world. To him belonged the same sporting instincts and love of the wild, whether of man, beast or inanimate native, the same modesty, and the same simple sincerity, courage and power of endurance. The last time I saw him at Koba, where I got to know him best, he had shot 600 elephants and told me that his ambition was to reach the total of 1000, a number that he doubtless accomplished before retiring from the business. The first time I met Bell was somewhere near Naivasha or Elmenteita in the early days of the Uganda Railway, about 1898, when we were both engaged in transport work for that great undertaking. This somewhat monotonous job did not appeal to him for long, and he soon gave it up and began hunting. He made a glorious and memorable expedition into the Karamoja country, one of the wildest and most inaccessible areas in Africa at that time, earning the title of "Karamoja Bell", by which he was henceforth known throughout Kenya. He was engaged - this time in company with Major Rayne - on another of his great safaris in Abyssinia at the period of my own trip through that country, and we nearly met there, our routes coming into close contact in one or two places; but unfortunately we missed each other by a few weeks. We were however, actually on the same journey between Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa at the same moment, but each travelled by a different route and never met in that country. ......... (more) ..... he retired to British country life on his native moors. But the Great War brought him out again to EA, where he did very valuable scouting service in the Flying Corps, and earned a name for recklessness by 'looping the loop' for a bet ..…..

Rundgren - packed off to sea in a windjammer at 14. Before the age of 21 he had traversed 3 continents, taken part in the Klondyke Gold Rush, fought in the Boer War, hunted meat for cannibals in the equatorial jungles of Africa, killed man-eating lions in Kenya and lived with lion-eating men in Uganda.

Hut - 1897 Uganda Railway,

White Hunter 'Karamoja Bell'

Archer - I feel that some account now of the exploits of that almost legendary figure Karamoja Bell can hardly fail to be interesting. The accounts he gives in his "Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter" are fantastic. It was always said of him in East Africa that the ropes of his tent were kept in place, not by pegs, but by weighty bags of ammunition, and that he practised his shooting daily till he could be sure of hitting a coin flung high into the air at 20 yards range. Having studied scientifically and on the spot the anatomy of an elephant, he acme to be able to place a .275 Mauser or a .256 Mannlicher bullet in its exceedingly small brain from any range, even when firing from behind over the animal's back. ……… [more pp 165-168]

Land - 1911 - H. Rayne and W.D.M. Bell - Agricultural, 639.783 and 860.597 acres - Witu - 24/3/08 - Freehold and Leasehold for 99 years from 1/3/08 - Registered 1/1/11

Land - 1912 - W.D.M. Bell and H. Rayne - Agriculture, 2100 acres - Juba River - 7/6/08 - Leasehold under Occupation Licence for 2 to 99 years from 1/7/10 - Registered during 1911

Uganda Journal - Vol. 19, No. 1 - Obituary

North - working as transport driver for Uganda Railway out of Mombasa 1898

Chandler - long potted biography

Air - Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate No. 1594 dated 15 Aug 1915 - Maurice Farman Biplane at Military School, Brooklands

Walmsley - 1916-1918 - 'a famous EA hunter, the most brilliant, daring and useful pilot in the squadron was "manoeuvered out" because of these very qualities.